4 Components of an Incapacity Plan

Making an incapacity plan with help from a Michigan incapacity planning attorney is vital if you want to protect yourself and your family in case of serious illness or injury. Making an incapacity plan is essential to sparing your family difficult decisions, avoiding unnecessary and sometimes costly court action, and ensuring that your wishes on important issues are respected even if you cannot communicate.

Biddinger & Estelle can help you to make an incapacity plan. You should not hesitate to make this plan, or assume you can wait until you are older, because you never know when tragedy could strike and you could become sick or hurt and find yourself in a position where you can no longer manage your own affairs.

Give our legal team a call today to work with a Michigan incapacity planning lawyer to get your plan in place. Our firm can help you to understand key components of a plan and to create the legal documents you need. While your plan must be personalized to you, the following are four components that are included in many incapacity plans.

A Durable Power of Attorney

A durable power of attorney allows you to designate an agent to act on your behalf. You’ll want to give that agent general power to make decisions for you so you assets can be appropriately managed. Your agent will have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests and to make decisions that are right for you. Ideally, your agent will be someone who you can truly trust, who knows how to protect your assets and who knows what decisions you would want made.

A Living Trust

A living trust is another way to protect your assets in case of incapacity plan, in addition to or instead of a power of attorney. When you create a living trust, you can transfer assets into it and retain control over those assets by making yourself the primary trustee. You can also name a successor trustee or backup trustee to take control of trust assets when you cannot manage them on your own any more. The backup trustee can immediately begin managing your assets in case of incapacity so there is no risk of the court appointing someone unqualified and so there is no risk of asset value declining due to a delay in determining who should mange assets.

A healthcare power of attorney

If you’re seriously hurt or sick, you may not be able to consent to receive medical care or you may be unable to provide input into what kinds of care you do and do not wish to receive. Doctors need to know who they should consult about your care. You should create a healthcare power of attorney so you can select a trusted person who will make medical decisions on your behalf when you cannot make those decisions. This will avoid confusion and family fighting over who should be in charge of making medical care choices. You can also discuss your preferences in advance with the person who you name to act on your behalf and make certain that you are confident the choices that will be made about you care are a reflection of what your wishes would be.

A Medicaid Plan

If you become incapacitated due to an injury or illness, you may have a long life left during which you are not actually able to live independently or care for yourself. You may need nursing home care or may need home healthcare aids. If the help you need is for custodial care – or routine daily care that is not skilled medical service – Medicare won’t typically pay for care and neither will private insurance providers.

You have to pay privately or get Medicaid coverage and Medicaid is a means-tested program so you won’t get benefits if you have too many assets. Making a Medicaid plan can help you to avoid spending all of your money on nursing home care. You should talk with an attorney as soon as possible to find out how you can protect as many assets as possible if you need nursing home care after an incapacitating illness or injury. While our firm offers crisis planning, acting in advance of the time when care is needed often makes it easier to keep assets safe.

Getting Help from A Michigan Incapacity Planning Lawyer

A Michigan incapacity planning lawyer can provide invaluable assistance with the incapacity planning process. Our legal team can help you to create each of these different legal documents if they are appropriate for you to accomplish your goals in planning ahead for illness or injury. To find out more about the ways in which we can assist you, give us a call at (989) 872-5601 or contact us online today.

Rachel is originally from Walled Lake, Michigan. She graduated from Walled Lake Central High School in 2006. After graduation she attended Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, where she earned her degree in History and Social Sciences in 2010. Rachel then went on to attend Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Ann Arbor, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Rachel is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys. Rachel now resides in Cass City.

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